The Post-Holiday Rambling Rundown: Part 3, All I Want for Christmas is KNITWEAR!

If you don’t follow me on Twitter, you probably don’t know that approximately 78.536% of my Tweets are about knitting. I’m kind of addicted to knitting – if you were to become a creeptastic stalker and spy on me at around 8:00 PM on nearly any weeknight, you’d find me sitting on my couch or on my bed, watching something on DVD (more than likely Doctor Who), and knitting away. I swear I have a social life; I just cherish (and, truthfully, need) lots of alone time – I’m an introvert; what can I say. Watching nerdy TV shows while knitting is a little slice of heaven; if I could figure out how to read and knit simultaneously, I’d probably go into throes of ecstasy a la Saint Theresa (pardon my blasphemy).

Oh Bernini, you slay me.

Anyway, despite this mad knitting, I rarely ever knit anything for myself – I’ve always got tons of projects lined up for friends and family, for holidays and birthdays and just because they’re worth it. Case in point: Christmas. I decided to knit everyone in my immediate family something, and I was so gratified and happy when they all opened their gifts on Christmas morning and enjoyed and appreciated the articles I’d made especially for them. I know some of you are knitters or crafters, so I thought I’d share my Christmas knitting with y’all. :) If you’re on Ravelry, the links take you to the patterns there. And if you’re a Raveler, you should add me as a friend!

First up: My sister goes to school in Syracuse, so she and I both require lots of winterwear. Because she’s the bees’ knees, I made her the Entwined scarf, which is a garter stitch scarf with BUILT-IN FINGERLESS MITTS – how awesome is that?! I used Tatamy Tweed Worsted in Jungle Vine, and I loooved the yarn and the pattern both. Here’s me being silly in my pre-Christmas photoshoot for Ravelry (I’m not really this yellow… ick):

Goober.

And here’s my oh-so-gangsta gangsta sissy on Christmas (dunno why this photo is all squished):

Raisinet.

Next, I used this Basic Men’s Mittens pattern to work up two pairs of mittens, one for my dad and one for my brother, using Vanna’s Choice yarn (don’t judge). For my dad, I went for simple, classic heather grey:

Manly mittens?

He seemed to like them:

Mooseman?

For my brother’s pair, I used the official colors of his fraternity – I knit the mittens in purple, and used double-stitching to add the Greek letters of his fraternity in gold. I had a little trouble deciding on the placement of the letters – should someone looking at them be able to read them? Should he be able to read them while looking down at his hands?! This is what I came up with:

This is a little dark... :(

And then, for my mommy dearest, I made a scarflet – she’s always cold, but who wants to wear a full-on scarf all day long? Enter the Mustard Scarf! I also used Tatamy Tweed for this project, this time in the lovely Sea Blue. I made the button from bronze polymer clay, too. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a photo of this one on Christmas morning, so I only have the Ravelry photo of this one:

Why do I look so glum?!

Finally, I just have to share one of my most favorite things I’ve made in the past year – Rose’s Wrist Warmers, based on the wrist warmers Rose wears in the ridiculously heart-wrenching Doomsday episode of Doctor Who. I made these for my bestest friend (though I’m modeling them here):

Purply prettiness.

ISN’T THAT A FREAKIN’ GORGEOUS PATTERN?! It was a bit of a pain (lots of cables, so it’s not mindless knitting), but totally worth it. :)

Yeah! Knitting! This is by no means an exhaustive compilation of the knitted items I’ve given away in the past year (dishcloths are sorta boring, y’know?), but these are definitely some of my favorites. Hope you’ve enjoyed this mini-tour of my FOs… I love seeing what other people are working on, so I figured it was time I shared, too. :)

Do you knit? If so, what’ve you knit lately? What’s on your needles now? I’m working on a belated gift for my BFF – I’ll show you when I’m finished!

5 thoughts on “The Post-Holiday Rambling Rundown: Part 3, All I Want for Christmas is KNITWEAR!”

Second, your knitting projects are so impressive. I crochet – I couldn’t quite get the hang of knitting – but it’s pretty miserable to do so in the summer here. Having clothes on is bad enough (but kind of necessary, so we can leave the curtains open so the breeze can come in!), so adding a warm wooly crochet project to my lap is usually the last thing I want to do. Which is unfortunate, because I really love having something to do with my hands which is also productive…

You’re so talented!!! Everything is beautiful, but those purple cables…wow. Come teach me to do that, please?

I’m knitting a hat and bootie set for my sister’s new baby, but I just have not time to sit so progress is slow…I don’t know when people get all their knitting done, unless they watch lots of television or spend time in public transit – I do neither. I need to run and knit maybe? Sounds dangerous…

Aw, thank you! I adore cabling and I would totally share my skillz (such as they are) with you if I could!

Ha, knitting while running… that would be somethin’! Yeah, if I weren’t living the young, singleton lifestyle, I’m sure I’d have much less time to devote to crafting. I’m impressed that all you grown-up types find any time to get things done! :)

Your knitting is so awesome! I’ve been doing knitting with my students for over ten years but personally I’m still at knitting 101 stage. I can cast on, cast off, knit and crochet a lovely square (and anything in the shape of a square, or a scarf), but that’s about it. Should take a class or something. That scarflet is lovely.